Hesai swings to profit in Q1 as lidar shipments skyrocket 140%
Hesai Group (NASDAQ:HSAI) returned to net profitability during the first quarter of 2026, supported by an accelerating volume of sensor installations across the global electric vehicle and autonomous driving sectors.
The Shanghai-based 3D perception hardware manufacturer turned around a loss from the same period last year, recording a GAAP net income of RMB18.3 million ($2.7 million).
Total net revenues for the quarter reached RMB680.6 million ($98.6 million), up 29.6% year-over-year.
The top-line momentum was driven primarily by an explosive ramp-up in manufacturing scaling, with total lidar unit shipments climbing 140.9% to a record 471,723 units during the three-month period.
Non-GAAP net income, which adjusts for share-based compensation, reached RMB47.7 million ($6.9 million)—representing a 452.9% surge over the prior-year period.
The company maintained a solid financial profile throughout the high-volume cycle, logging a gross margin of 39.1%.
Operational highlights were anchored by a newly finalized strategic design win partnership with Mercedes-Benz, expanding Hesai's penetration into premium European passenger vehicle lines.
On the hardware innovation front, Hesai showcased its fifth-generation proprietary platform, featuring the Picasso 6D full-color ultra-sensitive SPAD-SoC (single-photon avalanche diode system-on-chip).
This specialized semiconductor represents a shift in sensor architecture by integrating spatial geometric positioning (XYZ) and ambient object color data (RGB) directly at the ASIC level.
By eliminating the traditional lagging software step of fusing monochrome point clouds with external camera feeds, the system enables native colorized 3D imaging.
The company also introduced its Kosmo SGI spatial intelligence hardware platform to target the physical AI and robotics industries.
For the second quarter of 2026, corporate management issued a strong short-term outlook, projecting total net revenues to land between RMB850 million and RMB900 million.
The guidance implies a year-over-year revenue expansion of 20% to 27%, fueled by ongoing commercial rollouts of its high-volume ATX and upcoming long-range ETX series sensors.